Media Outreach Tips

Click here to download a pdf version of the 2009 Social Work Month Toolkit.

General Media Tips

• Seek out journalists who have written about your issue or topic recently.  These individuals will be more likely to cover the topic again.
• Double check your contacts.  Journalists, especially those in smaller media outlets, tend to change beats and outlets frequently.  Those who you spoke with for last year’s Social Work Month may not be the appropriate contacts this year.  The media organization’s Web site can be an excellent resource for contact information and beat information for journalists.
• Use the local angle.  All of the materials NASW has provided should be modified to include local information or activities.  Local media are more likely to cover a local angle to a national observance.

Tips for Facts Sheets about Social Work

• Make fact sheets available for the press.  They are good items to have on hand to provide to reporters at events.
• Include local statistics about social work in your fact sheets.  Local reporters gravitate toward facts that have a local angle.
• Give fact sheets to stakeholders.  When holding an event, conference or presentation, have local social work facts on hand to provide to all attendees.
• Make sure to include these facts in your press kits.  A press kit is a collection of background materials that you can send to media outlets.  Other items to include in a press kit can include a press release about the event and bios of key spokespeople for your organization.

Tips for Press Releases

• Present a well thought out story.  Provide the journalist with not only the idea, but also the key players in the story.  Provide experts who convey both sides of the story, including an expert or two who conveys your messages.  Give real life examples of how this story affects people and allow the journalists to speak with those people.
• Research the appropriate contact to send the pitch.  You can research the reporters’ beats, or topical areas of coverage, by reviewing the Web site for the publication or broadcast program.  Reporters appreciate when you understand the beats that they cover and pitch a story idea that is relevant to their work.
• Determine the best way to reach out to a journalist.  Most journalists prefer to be contacted initially by e-mail.  The days of faxing and snail mail are slowly drifting away.  A simple phone call can be effective follow up, but only when you have something additional to add to your pitch.  Don’t send attachments of press releases or photos unless they have been solicited by the journalist.
• Make the pitch compelling.  Use an interesting subject line, keep the copy of the pitch short and keep them reading with a couple of compelling paragraphs (at most) about your story idea.  Keep in mind that reporters receive hundreds of emails a day and they need to be selective about the ones that catch their attention.
• Connect your pitch to a timely news event.  If you can connect your story idea to a larger story or to a community event, then the pitch is more likely to be considered.
• Provide contact information.  It might seem basic, but providing your e-mail address and daytime and nighttime phone numbers to a reporter will only help your chances of getting them to cover your story.

Tips for Interviews

• Know your message.  Before your interview, review your key message points, such as those provided in this toolkit for Social Work Month.  Identify two or three essential points that you must get across during the interview.
• Be prepared.  Prepare several facts and anecdotes from your experience that you can share to underscore your main points.
• Try to avoid space fillers, such as “um” and “ah.”
• Be engaging, natural and firmly in support of your message.
• Make sure your message is simple and compelling.  Focus on answering questions succinctly, but don’t leave out key points to save time.
• Try to incorporate one key theme in all of your responses to a journalist.
• Avoid speculation and hypotheticals.  It may lead to being misquoted.
• Avoid technical terms, jargon and acronyms.  Only people who are familiar with your program are familiar with your terms.
• Do not say “no comment.”  If you cannot answer, explain why.
• Do not be afraid to say, “I don’t know…but I will find out for you.”
• Be confident.  You’re the expert in the interview!

Tips on Placing Letters to the Editor

Letters to the editor usually relate to a story that was in the newspaper. 

• If you feel passionately, either way about a topic, you should consider writing a letter the editor. 
• Letters to the editor are usually 250-300 words (many times less) so you need to make sure that you are able to get your point across in a succinct and compelling way. 
• Timing is everything with letters to the editor.  Try to respond to an article the same day or the next day. 
• If you have statistics or examples that back up your stance, use them.
• Look on the Web site of the publication to which you want to send the letter to the editor for guidelines. 
• Most papers will confirm with you before they print the letter. 
• Make sure that you include day and evening phone numbers. 
• Sign your name, and include any information that would indicate why you have a specific interest in this topic.
• Most publications and many TV and radio stations allow their Web site visitors to post comments.  These comments can be read by thousands of people in a day. This is another way to get your position or response heard.

Tips on Placing Print Op-Eds

• Identify your message.  What is that you want to happen in the end?  Be focused and clear with your message.
• Back it up with facts.  You need to express an opinion and then back it up with facts.
• Write for the reader.  The standard way to make an argument is to state your main point, present evidence to support that opinion and then offer a recommendation or conclusion.
• Try different angles with different outlets.  If your Op-ed is not published by your media outlet of choice, then consider re-submitting it to a smaller, local or regional paper.
• Timely and relevant increase odds.  Current issues affecting a community or a national topic that can be tied to an issue facing the entire community is more likely to be published.
• Stick to the guidelines.  Most publications have submission requirements.  Make sure you draft your Op-ed within these guidelines.

Tips for Radio Outlets

Most large cities have radio stations with an all-news or all-talk format.  These stations feature in-depth coverage of issues and present many interview opportunities.  Other radio outlets rely on “feeds” from network newscasts (like NBC, CBS and ABC) and wire services.

• Contact the News Director to gauge their interest in covering social workers and social work issues.
• Interviews may be live or taped.  But most will take place over the phone.
• Apply many of the same rules for print interviews to a radio interview: stay on message and answer with a clear, concise response.

Tips for Web Outreach

The newspaper industry is seeing a decline in print readership and an increase in online readership.

• Many of the same stories that appear in the print edition also appear online.
• There may be additional content for the Web, since the pages are endless.  But, many times articles are written differently for the Web than for print.
• Web content is more immediate than print content, so be ready with breaking news.
• Look on your local newspaper’s Web site to determine who the best person to contact about getting a story online.  Sometimes it is the print reporter, while other times there might be an entire online editorial staff.

Tips for Promoting Events

• Write a press release. Write a release announcing the event, including the who, what, when, where and why for the public.  Disseminate the press release two to three weeks before the event.
• Remind them.  Send a reminder about the event and make follow up phone calls with the press.
• Include calendar listings.  Send a press release about the event to the “calendar” and “week ahead” section of the local paper.  The Associated Press (AP) also has a daybook listing for each city.  Contact your local AP office and ask how to get a listing in their daybook.
• Have press kits on hand at your event.